The present invention is in the field of data packet network (DNT) communication and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for auto-assisting agents participating in agent-led chat sessions by summarizing previous threads in a chat session.
In the field of DPN communications, contact events incoming to and outgoing from a DPN capable communication-center are propagated over switched-packet data networks (SPDN) such as a wide-area-network WAN, which may be or include the Internet. Internet-protocol-network-telephony (IPNT) a sub-set of data network telephony (DNT), wherein voice and data calls are handled by suitable computer equipment and software is a typical and often used DPN implementation. Other examples include e-mail, file transfer, instant messaging electronic facsimile, and so on.
Such DPN capability as described above provides added flexibility to agents operating within a communication center and opens up new mediums of contact for clients wishing to interact with the center. For example, agents are no longer limited to a traditional telephony system. A new sort of agent, termed herein a multimedia agent, works with several different media types, hence the term multimedia.
Such multimedia agents will typically share a local-area-network (LAN) connection wherein individual agent personal-computer/video-display-units (PC/VDUs) may communicate with one another and with automated systems and switches within the communication center. In some cases, agents will operate DNT-capable telephones. Communication centers employing data network capabilities may still practice conventional connection-oriented switched telephony (COST) as known in the art. However, one with skill in the art will appreciate that DNT is forging in-roads into the field of telephony.
One IPNT medium is the well-known chat session. A chat session is facilitated by software at each client station and at a communications server hosted somewhere in an Internet-Protocol (IP) data network (typically the Internet). A chat session is typically hosted by a facilitator or session leader, which controls the rules and regulations governing each session. Typically a session master has controls provided to him that enable him to mute other participants, eject certain individuals from a session, direct the topics, and so on.
More recently, chat-room communication has become an important tool for public interface at many capable communication centers. A single agent may effectively host more than one and up to several on-going chat sessions simultaneously. In a situation such as this, certain parameters regarding the chat sessions themselves and the agents hosting them are typically observed. For example, it is desired that the topic or purpose of each chat session assigned to a particular agent agree at least substantially with the agent""s skill-level. It is similarly desired that any agent hosting a chat session or sessions is not overloaded or under-utilized while engaged in response to communication events in a session or sessions.
In prior art communication centers, such parameters are manually configured for each scheduled or ongoing session. This can be problematic because levels of communication loads associated with chat sessions can vary rapidly for any given number of participants. Moreover, limits regarding a number of participants allowed in each active chat session must be manually set by agents or an administrator on behalf of agents. Because of constant fluctuations regarding communications loads and number of participants logging into any chat session, and the inconvenience associated with manual adjustment of such chat session parameters, agents are often overloaded or under utilized for significant periods of time.
A system known to the inventor and taught in the specification listed in the cross-reference section above allows agents to be automatically assigned, relieved, and reassigned to communication-center chat sessions and other hosted participatory sessions based on message load and skill set. The routing system described in the co-pending specification uses agent-session monitoring software and algorithms to calculate total message-load experienced by any agent participating in a chat session or sessions and, according to preset load thresholds and agent skills, balances total incoming loads such that any particular agents are not overloaded or under utilized when engaged in such sessions. For convenience in the descriptions that follow, sessions will be referred to as chat sessions, although the inventor intends the invention to be applicable to all sorts of hosted communication sessions. Chat sessions are a convenient example for illustrating the features and functions of the invention.
An enhancement to the system described above is also known to the inventor and listed in the cross-reference section. This enhancement utilizes parsing software, editing software, and database software to provide a system wherein automated responses may be routed to particular queries, which are often repeated by customers engaged in chat with agents.
In chat applications known to the inventor and hosted through communication-center facilities, chat interaction is threaded and stored in a history database for later access and research. This may be accomplished regardless of whether the chat session is text-based or voice-based. For example, text-based threads originating in text chat are organized into a text database whereas voice interaction (voice chat) may be recorded and stored in a multimedia database with text copies of such interactions stored in a text database.
It has occurred to the inventor that even with message load management and automated response capability to often-asked questions, agents hosting more than one, perhaps several ongoing chat sessions may have some difficulty remembering recent context flow of a particular session. For example, three ongoing chat sessions may be hosted by one agent with skills relating to all three session topics. A session topic for one chat session may vary from that for another. Moreover, queries and responses within a particular chat session may follow a flow that weaves in and around various aspects of one general topic. An agent moving from one session to another must refresh his acknowledgment of each topic by noticing the topic heading in a particular chat session. However, in order to refresh his memory to the most recent flow of queries and responses generic to one session, he or she must scroll up to view the dialog and readjust his memory state to the dialog flow.
While auto response may improve an agent""s efficiency and tend to help reduce response load, there will still be queries that must be manually typed in by the agent. Taking time to refresh oneself to particular flow of a dialog by scrolling up to read the most recent exchange takes away from the agent""s efficiency.
What is clearly needed is an automated method and apparatus for summarizing most recent query-response pairs posted in a chat session such that a quick summary of dialog flow is available to an agent for a quick refresh of memory. Such a system would further enhance agent efficiency by eliminating the need to refresh by scrolling and reading previously posted query-response pairs.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a system for extracting keywords from a text dialog and providing the extracted keywords for presentation in a text interaction window is provided, comprising a parsing function for extracting keywords from a text dialog; a search function for comparing keywords extracted from the text dialog to a data repository for the purpose of matching the keywords to words contained therein; an editing station for editing keywords extracted from the text dialog; a routing control for routing the keywords to the appropriate text interaction window; and a display function for displaying the routed keywords in the text interaction window.
In various embodiments the text dialog comprises incoming chat queries. Also, the text interaction window may be an IP chat window. In addition a second parsing function may parse responses to the queries for keywords. In some embodiments keywords extracted from responses are associated in display with keywords extracted from queries.
In some embodiments the interactive environment is that of a communication center connected to the Internet and hosting communication sessions, while in other embodiments the interactive environment is that of an IP network wherein communication sessions are hosted in communication servers.
In another aspect of the invention a method for aiding an agent in a chat session is provided, comprising the steps of (a) parsing keywords from text dialog; (b) editing the collected keywords; (c) routing the keywords to an interactive text window; and, (d) displaying the extracted keywords in the interactive text window associated with the text dialog.
In some embodiments, in step (a), the text dialog comprises communication chat queries. Also in some embodiments, in steps (c) and (d), the text interaction window is an IP chat window. Further in some embodiments a step is added between steps (a) and (b) enabling responses to chat queries to be parsed for keywords.
In still other embodiments, in step (d), keywords extracted from the responses are associated in display with the keywords extracted from the queries. In yet other embodiments a step is added between steps (b) and (c) for comparing the extracted keywords with words held in a data repository, and step (d) may include displaying any matches found in the data repository alongside, but separated from the dialog keywords.